Kyiv’s Third Ever LGBT Pride March, Explained

What You Need To Know:

✓ With an estimated 2,000 participants, the crowd included people of different ages, and from various social groups and not everyone belonged to the LGBT community;

✓ “Many people came not just to support LGBT people but to say to society that there is no place in Ukraine for ultra-right violence;”

✓ “It’s also about the growing of our mind… everybody has the same right: equality means equality for all;”

✓ Shevchenko believes that more is needed from the state, to gain access to creating a dialogue about LGBT rights with the public.

Kyiv’s third ever LGBT Pride March, sent out a clear message, according to one of the event’s participants. “Human rights is about all people, not for just some group of people,” says Olena Shevchenko, Director of the LGBT group ‘Insight”. With an estimated 2,000 participants, the crowd included people of different ages, and from various social groups and not everyone belonged to the LGBT community.

“Many people came not just to support LGBT people but to say to society that there is no place in Ukraine for ultra-right violence,” she adds. The march was held in the city’s center, with non-obligatory registration and was patrolled by 600 Kyiv Police officers. Shevchenko says that it is a sign that Ukraine is changing.

In the years following the Euromaidan, Ukraine has been growing, and not just economically she says. The country is going through a new stage of development: “it’s also about the growing of our mind… everybody has the same right: equality means equality for all.”

Shevchenko believes that more is needed from the state, to gain access to creating a dialogue about LGBT rights with the public. The next step is to change opinions through education and provide people with more information on the LGBT community; something she thinks will change public opinion. While some offensive remarks were made by police officers, Shevchenko says that they need to separate their opinions from their work “if you are working in the police, you should protect people.”

Hromadske’s Nataliya Gumenyuk and Kyiv Post’s Josh Kovensky spoke to Olena Shevchenko, Director of LGBT Organization “Insight”, live during ‘The Sunday Show’ on June 12, 2016 in Kyiv.